K1 and Streaker Open at Waveney & Oulton Broad Yacht Club

Nine Streakers and three K1s were treated to some tricky sailing at Oulton Broad, Suffolk on Saturday 13th July when Waveney & Oulton Broad Yacht Club hosted open meetings for both classes. Northerly winds always make racing difficult on the Broad as the trees and houses on the northern bank cast a wind shadow and create very shifty conditions.

The K1s started first and their Race 1 was a game of cat and mouse with all three boats fighting for the lead in the early stages, until Geoff King gradually pulled away to win with Steve Conway in 2nd place.

K1 and Streaker Open at Waveney & Oulton Broad - photo © Karen Langston

For race 2 Andy Ritchie led at the start. Massive shifts and the wind backing made for an interesting time. An infringement on port tack and the resulting 720 dropping Andy to last. In the meantime Steve had his own drama with a broken tiller extension allowing Andy to pull through to second place. Geoff took line honours again.

Race three saw Andy lead the first beat with Geoff & Steve sailing tighter reaches to get the inside line at the leeward mark. Geoff and Steve pulled ahead and had close quarter racing until the 'photo finish' at the line, with Geoff taking the win.

Therefore, Geoff was the clear winner of the K1 event with Steve 2nd. Geoff is an ex-member of WOBYC but this was his first visit to the club for many years.

K1 and Streaker Open at Waveney & Oulton Broad - photo © Karen Langston

Meanwhile, in the Streaker fleet, Veronica Falat of the home club had a very good day, also winning her three races. Local knowledge certainly helped, such as knowing to dive low on the downwind legs to get away from the north bank as quickly as possible. Another local sailor, Pete Matthews, made extremely good starts in the first two races but couldn't hold on to the lead for more than a lap or so. Ian Bradley was the visitor who was best able to cope with the shifts and patchy wind and he and Veronica had some close battles. At times the breeze was strong enough for planing on the reaches - but it was just luck whether you were in the right place at the right time to take advantage of this. Veronica struck it lucky in race 3 and was able to sail away from the rest of the fleet on the first lap and was not challenged again while several boats were in the mix for 2nd place, which eventually went to Ian followed by Mark Langston and Chris Smith.

The Streaker open counts towards two travellers' series - the P&B Southern Paddle and the East Anglian series.

Overall Results: